When he didn’t, I pushed past him and did it myself.
I turned toward Alec and noticed he was staring past me toward the front doors.
With curiosity, I shot a glance over my shoulder before turning back toward him.
Unexpectedly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood.
As if there was a threat.
Did someone follow us into the building that shouldn’t without me knowing? Was I about to be mugged? Or my children kidnapped?
My hand tightened around Mazie’s and my heart pounded in my throat.
If I had to, I’d shove my kids into the elevator to keep them safe so I could turn around to confront the threat.
“Hurry up,” I mumbled to the elevator, watching the floor numbers count down as it traveled toward the ground level. I quickly glanced back over my shoulder again at the man coming through the doors from the vestibule into the main lobby area.
That was when I lost my breath and my brain glitched.
It couldn’t be. I had to be seeing things.
How did he find me here?
How would he know I was here? In Pittsburgh? In this building?
Why would he be here?
Why would he be looking for me?
What the hell was happening?
Maybe I was wrong and it was someone who only looked like Ronan Pak. While this man looked similar to the one I once knew, he also looked different.
Very different.
But then twelve years had passed since I last saw him. A lot could change in that time.
Two of my major changes were named Mazie and Alec.
The man, who looked eerily familiar, froze one step into the lobby, his dark brown eyes taking me in. Then he took in my kids…
That was when I knew…
My instinct was right.
Holy shit.
We stared at each other across the lobby. Me frozen in front of the elevators, him a concrete statue in front of the doors.
Only about twenty feet or so now separated us instead of twelve years.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open.
Get in the elevator, Tate. Get in. You’re imagining this and even if you aren’t…
Even if you aren’t…
“Wait.” I grabbed Alec’s shoulder before he could step into the car. “Hold up, Alec.”
When my son jerked his shoulder from my grip, Ronan noticed but kept his expression blank.
I didn’t know what to do. Had he seen us on the street and followed us inside to talk to me?
And, if so, did I want him approaching me to possibly hash out the past in front of my kids?
No.
No, I didn’t want my kids to know who that man was to me… No… who he had been to me in my past.
I didn’t want them to know how much he had meant to me.
How their father had betrayed him.
Not on purpose but because I thought I had no other choice.
We couldn’t stay where we currently were, in this crazy stand-off. I either had to take my kids upstairs to my place and forget I ever saw Ronan, or I needed to find out why he was here. In the lobby of my building.
The first choice would be the smartest. Nothing good would come from us reopening old wounds.
Of course, that wasn’t what I did. Mostly because I was a pro at doing the wrong thing and then regretting it later.
“Hold your brother’s hand and don’t move from this spot. Do you understand?”
Mazie nodded and took a reluctant Alec’s hand. My son accepted it but not without glaring at me first.
“Who is that, Daddy?”
I ignored Alec’s behavior as if it didn’t exist and answered my daughter’s question. “Just an… old friend.”
Something flashed across Ronan’s face. There and gone in an instant.
But what I said wasn’t wrong. We had been friends first before…
The rest.
“Stay right here while I go say hello. Don’t get in the elevator or go up the steps, okay?”
Alec didn’t respond, but Mazie, with her bottom lip now tucked between her teeth, nodded her head.
I stepped away from my present and into my past as I approached the man who hadn’t moved even an inch.
When I got closer, I paused and waited for him to say something. Anything. I also kept a close eye on his hands to make sure he didn’t pull out a gun to shoot me dead.
When he didn’t, I edged my way around him since he was blocking the door and I stepped into the vestibule. I turned to face the lobby so I could keep an eye on my offspring while I talked to Ronan.
However, it took a few more moments for him to finally unstick himself from where he stood and follow me.
Now instead of twenty, we stood only five feet apart.
He was just outside my reach. Even if I stretched out my arm and fingers.
Did I want to touch him? Oh yes.
Did I recognize the fact that the day I walked away from him was the biggest mistake of my life? Also yes.